Corking

[Peterock]

Ok All, I got a floor corker for Christmas . I've been using screw caps.
So let me see if my understanding of the reading I've been doing is correct or if my memory soaked it in.
1 Soak the corks in a sulfite/water mixture. How long? Should they be submerged?
2 Obviously clean sanitize the bottles
3 Fill bottle leaving head room for the cork. How much room? A little more than the mass of the cork?
4 Leave bottle/s standing up for a week so the pressure neutralizes
5 Lay on side from here to keep cork from drying out
Did I miss something? Is there a advantage to corking Vs screw caps?
Thanks, Pete

 

[Runningwolf]

Ok All, I got a floor corker for Christmas . I've been using screw caps.
So let me see if my understanding of the reading I've been doing is correct or if my memory soaked it in.
1 Soak the corks in a sulfite/water mixture. How long? Should they be submerged?Do not soak corks if they are new
2 Obviously clean sanitize the bottles correct
3 Fill bottle leaving head room for the cork. How much room? A little more than the mass of the cork?leave about 1/2-3/4" below cork
4 Leave bottle/s standing up for a week so the pressure neutralizescorrect
5 Lay on side from here to keep cork from drying outcorrect
Did I miss something? Is there a advantage to corking Vs screw caps?If you do a search there are many debates about this
Thanks, Pete

You will enjoy your new floor corker

 

[Lurker]

I do not soak the corks. I spritz them with sulfite solution and pop them in. Some of the guys pop them in dry.

 

[Wade E]

Soaking the corks is not a great idea but sometimes needed for hand corkers, dont use this method for floor corkers. You keep the bottles upright for a few days to let the corks seat right not to alleviate pressure. The best way to sanitize corks is to pour the kmeta solution over the corks which should be in a colander over a bucket with lid. After pouring the solution over the corks put the lid over and let the S02 gases do their work for about 10 minutes. You really should get yourself a bottle filling wand as it will leave the perfect amount of head space. These fillers cost like $2.79 and really do do a perfect job every time!
http://www.finevinewines.com/p-978-4861.aspx
You really want about about 3/4" from where the bottom of the cork would be. Ive seen studies go both ways as far as which will do better. I like #9 x 1.75 perfect agglomerate corks myself. If you have a Portuguese floor corker then its said that synthetic corks or some of them are too tough for this corker but the Italian one has no problem with any corks.

 

[Tom]

5 Lay on side from here to keep cork from drying out correct

Now I put them upsidedown the case. I find they stack better.

 

[Dufresne11]

make a corkidor and set them in dry... search for corkidor on this site. It is the best investment of one of the million food grade pails I now own since starting this hobby. With a floor corker you don't need the wet them to get them in the bottle. You only need them sanitized and the fumes of P-Meta do the sanitizing you don't necessarily need to immerse/rinse them.

In fact all of your plastic winemaking stuff can go in the corkidor, hoses, spigots, bungs, airlocks

 

[Peterock]

OK so I searched "corkidor" in the forums. About 20 or so threads poped up. I've read about half of them. I couldn't find a true defintion. The best that I could gather is it consists of a small container (about quart size) filled with sulfite solution in side of a much larger food grade container with sealable lid that one can fit equipment/corks inside of to sanitize. Is this right? Did I miss a "sticky" with this info? Does anyone have pic of thier own?

 

[Wade E]

A gallon or 2 gallon bucket with a sealing lid is perfect. Put a glass bottle with some kmeta solution consisting of 3 tbls of sulfite and 1 gallo of water. Put that in the bucket and pour the corks around the solution. You can keep any plastic wine making stuff like all your hose in there also. This will sanitize your corks and hoses better then any other way with the exception of soaking them in Starsan or Iodophor.

 

[Peterock]

Does a cokidor kill/prevent 2,4,6-Trichloranisole? Or is that just nature of the beast?
Thanks guys, your the best
Learning soo much, Pete

 

[Wade E]

Ive never experienced with any of my wines to date.

 

[Peterock]

That's all I needed to hear!
I'm making a corkidor!

 

[Lurker]

I took a 6 gal. juice bucket, drilled some holes in the bottom and placed it into another 6 gal. bucket into which I had placed some K Meta solution. Wala, a corkador. The fumes come up through the holes and sanitize whatever I place in the top bucket.